Skip to main content

Warlike behaviour draws condemnation

Coincidental with the previous posting on a new Jewish group calling for a just solution of the Israel-Palestinian conflict, comes this piece in the SMH on a survey of how various countries around the world are viewed:

"The mortal enemies Israel and Iran share common ground as the world's most reviled nations, according to a global poll that has confirmed a slide in the reputation of the United States.

Its "use and pursuit of military power" was a negative influence on the world, the poll found, as was North Korea, which tested a nuclear weapon late last year.

The BBC- Herald survey - of more than 28,000 people in 27 countries - has revealed that with most of the world, Australian opinion was strongly against Israel, Iran and North Korea. But in the Middle East crucible, heated by the rhetoric and actions of Tel Aviv and Tehran, public support was with Iran, which in 2005 called for Israel to be "wiped off the map". There were even some positive feelings for North Korea."

"People around the world tend to look negatively on countries whose profile is marked by the use or pursuit of military power," said Steven Kull, the director of the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland, which conducted the poll with the polling firm GlobeScan."

Comments

Michael said…
Interesting.

Israel has never tested a nuclear weapon, never tested a nuclear capable ballistic missle, and never threatened to wipe any country off the map.

Iran, which has done all of these things, get better PR.

What a crock.

Popular posts from this blog

Robert Fisk's predictions for the Middle East in 2013

There is no gain-saying that Robert Fisk, fiercely independent and feisty to boot, is the veteran journalist and author covering the Middle East. Who doesn't he know or hasn't he met over the years in reporting from Beirut - where he lives?  In his latest op-ed piece for The Independent he lays out his predictions for the Middle East for 2013. Read the piece in full, here - well worthwhile - but an extract... "Never make predictions in the Middle East. My crystal ball broke long ago. But predicting the region has an honourable pedigree. “An Arab movement, newly-risen, is looming in the distance,” a French traveller to the Gulf and Baghdad wrote in 1883, “and a race hitherto downtrodden will presently claim its due place in the destinies of Islam.” A year earlier, a British diplomat in Jeddah confided that “it is within my knowledge... that the idea of freedom does at present agitate some minds even in Mecca...” So let’s say this for 2013: the “Arab Awakening” (the t...

The NPT (Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty) goes on hold.....because of one non-Treaty member (Israel)

Isn't there something radically wrong here?    Israel, a non-signatory to the NPT has, evidently, been the cause for those countries that are Treaty members, notably Canada, the US and the UK, after 4 weeks of negotiation, effectively blocking off any meaningful progress in ensuring the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons.    IPS reports ..... "After nearly four weeks of negotiations, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference ended in a predictable outcome: a text overwhelmingly reflecting the views and interests of the nuclear-armed states and some of their nuclear-dependent allies. “The process to develop the draft Review Conference outcome document was anti-democratic and nontransparent,” Ray Acheson, director, Reaching Critical Will, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), told IPS. “This Review Conference has demonstrated beyond any doubt that continuing to rely on the nuclear-armed states or their nuclear-de...

#1 Prize for a bizarre story.....and lying!

No comment called for in this piece from CommonDreams: Another young black man: The strange sad case of 21-year-old Chavis Carter. Police in Jonesboro, Arkansas  stopped  him and two friends, found some marijuana, searched put Carter, then put him handcuffed  behind his back  into their patrol car, where they say he  shot himself  in the head with a gun they failed to find. The FBI is investigating. Police Chief Michael Yates, who stands behind his officers' story,  says in an interview  that the death is "definitely bizarre and defies logic at first glance." You think?